Here are some photos of Senior Infants trying an experiment with liquids.

We wanted to find out if some liquids are heavier or lighter than others.

Part 1: We half filled a jar with water. We filled the rest of the jar with cooking oil.

What happened? The oil stayed on top because it is lighter than water.

We then put three drops of red food colouring into the jar.

What happened? The food colouring stayed in the oil layer without spreading out.

When we put the lid on the jar and shook it gently backwards and forwards the food colouring got through to the water layer and turned it red.

Part 2: We poured syrup into a jar until it was about a quarter full.

Next we added about the same amount of water with food colouring.

We then poured in some cooking oil.

The syrup stayed on the bottom because it is the heaviest. The oil stayed on top of the water because it is lighter.